FOI in the Age of Coronavirus and Beyond

Tuesday, May 12, 7 p.m.

What impact is the Coronavirus pandemic having on freedom of information requests? What are the potential long-term impacts of the outbreak on FOI and transparency? Join the Deadline Club for an informative and enlightening conversation on FOI in the midst of the pandemic, and advice for navigating public records requests going forward. The session will include how-to guidance, front-line tales and a call to media arms to keep public records public.

WHO:

• Jeremy Kutner, Deputy General Counsel at ProPublica
• Micah Morrison, Chief Investigative Reporter at Judicial Watch
• Danielle McLean, Staff Reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education

Jeremy Kutner is general counsel at ProPublica, where he provides legal advice on the organization’s full range of activities, with emphasis on its newsroom. He has litigated cases involving libel, freedom of information laws, subpoenas seeking testimony from reporters about sources, and access to sealed documents. Prior to joining ProPublica as deputy general counsel in 2018, Kutner practiced media law at Ballard Spahr (formerly Levine, Sullivan, Koch & Schulz), and was a First Amendment Fellow at The New York Times. He has also worked as a freelance journalist, with his writing from around the world appearing in outlets including the Times, HuffPost and The Christian Science Monitor. He graduated from Yale Law School and Yale University.

Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch, the nation’s leading filer and litigator of Freedom of Information Act requests. He writes Judicial Watch’s “Investigative Bulletin” column and conducts in-depth investigations. Prior to joining Judicial Watch, Micah worked for the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. At Fox, Micah led investigations for a documentary news unit. At the Journal editorial page, Micah led the Whitewater investigation of the Clinton Administration. Micah co-edited the six-volume series, Whitewater: A Wall Street Journal Briefing. The Journal nominated him four times for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2016, Micah was recognized by the Retired Detectives Association of the New York Police Department for his “relentless investigation” of the cold-case killing of NYPD Patrolman Phillip Cardillo, receiving the “ARDY” award, the group’s highest honor. Judicial Watch is currently in freedom of information litigation with the NYPD over the Cardillo case. Micah is the author of “Fire in Paradise: The Yellowstone Fires and the Politics of Environmentalism,” published by HarperCollins.

Danielle McLean is a staff reporter at the Chronicle for Higher Education, where she writes about the real-world impact of state & federal higher education policies. Prior to joining the Chronicle for Higher Education, Danielle was an investigative reporter at ThinkProgress covering voter suppression, voting rights, and redistricting. Danielle is a former chairperson of SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee. She previously worked as an investigative reporter for the Bangor Daily News and covered a number of Massachusetts city halls for several newspapers including the Somerville Journal, the Milford Daily News, and the Boston Globe’s website, Boston.com. She has won the Maine Press Association’s political reporting award, as well as the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s government, transportation, business and economic, and courts and crime reporting awards.